Octopus. Image: flickr

Celebrate the launch of the ANU Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences with a public lecture presented by Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith.

Date: Wednesday 9 August 2017

Time: 4pm

Location: The Shine Dome, 15 Gordon Street Acton, Canberra, ACT 2601

RSVP: RSVP here

In his lecture, Professor Godfrey-Smith will draw on themes from his path breaking book, Other Minds.

Abstract: The brains, and hence minds, of animals evolved to complement their bodies. The diversity of those bodies, and their histories, tell us something about the nature and origins of the mind. This lecture will discuss a range of cases, with special attention to the octopus.

Peter Godfrey-Smith grew up in Sydney, Australia, and holds a BA from the University of Sydney and a PhD in philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. He taught at Stanford, Harvard, the Australian National University, and the CUNY Graduate Center before moving to his current position as Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. His main research interests are in the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of mind, though he also works on pragmatism and various other parts of philosophy.

About The Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences

The Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences will be a hub for philosophers and scientists not only within the ANU, but across Australasia and globally for the philosophy of nature.

Alongside projects on traditional questions such as the nature of scientific evidence and its role in judgement and decision-making, researchers in the Centre will also undertake research into evolution by natural selection, the nature of cognition, the evolution of cooperation, language and sociality and the nature of time.

The interdisciplinary nature of the Centre sees it bring together researchers from across the university from disciplines as disparate as computer science, physics, linguistics, anthropology and philosophy.